Hubby is sick and I don't just mean a little sick. He's DOWN!! He was supposed to go to work today and had to call in as a "no show". That tells me a whole lot, right there. He's really feeling badly. He says that he aches from the top of his head all the way down to his toes. He can't eat and right now is in bed with a pan, just in case he has to barf. He's one of those guys that can be sick and keeps right on going but when he gets down like this I feel like I've got to keep a really close eye on him because, trust me, he's a little more than merely sick!! So far, I'm good; but needless to say, there's not a whole lot I can do about staying away from hubby and keeping out of the scope of his germs. I'm spraying the house, eating properly, drinking lots of liquids and doing my best to get plenty of sleep.
--------------------------------
It's 3:30 p.m. and I've just put supper in the oven. Hubby is still not much better - but at least he isn't any worse! I've been practicing using my cast ironware hubby bought me for Christmas. To be honest, for me, there's not whole lot of difference other than I need to watch the heat and cooking times; but what it does do is get my creative cooking juices running and I probably by now don't need to tell you how exciting that is to me!! I also have to confess that I've never really owned a dutch oven and now I have a cast iron dutch oven, which is even more exciting. Today I put a couple pieces of bacon in my dutch oven and fried them up to render the grease and then removed the bacon. I had two leg and thigh pieces and browned them in the bacon grease. I then added about a quart of my own canned potatoes some thinly sliced purple onions and about 8 small garlic cloves, salt, pepper and lemon thyme. I'm a big fan of lemon thyme. When you get used to eating herbs you will notice the subtle difference that lemon thyme adds to a dish. It's wonderful with chicken and fish dishes. I continued on and added about a pint of homemade turkey bullion, sprinkled the crumbled bacon in the mix, put the lid on the pan, and slipped it into the oven on 400 degrees. I can tell you right now - it's going to be so-o-o good. I drained a quart of Italian Flat green beans and stir-fried them in brown butter. I then scattered just a bare minimum of parmesan cheese over them. Hard to beat this meal. Hearty, full of flavor with a tiny bit of flair. Add a little applesauce with cinnamon and I think we'll both be eating quite well.